Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Hurricane Season 2015 Winding Down (11/10)

The Atlantic season will end on November 30, 2015 on a rather quiet note (with no activity as of 11/10). Once again, no major hurricanes affected the mainland USA, with Florida (as well as the rest of the USA) going over a FULL DECADE since a major hurricane strike (winds 111 MPH and higher). The strongest storm in the Atlantic was Joaquin (left image), reaching strong category 4 status in early October 2015, but did not affect any land. The Pacific basin painted a much more grim and violent picture.

With hurricane Patricia (center) in late October being the most powerful tropical system ever observed in the W Hemisphere with sustained winds over 205 MPH (later weakening to 160 MPH before hitting a sparsely populated area of the Mexican coast). A barrage of typhoons also affected the Asian / western Pacific region, such as the near annular storm pictured to the right off Taiwan in late September 2015.